By IANS,
Shimla : A mega hydropower project in Himachal Pradesh that was caught in an administrative logjam after the central environment and forests ministry objected to the transfer of a large chunk of forest land to it would be commissioned by 2013.
“After the completion of the dam in March 2012, the reservoir impounding will commence in October 2012 and the (Kol Dam) project is proposed to be commissioned by March 2013,” Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who also holds the power portfolio, said in a written reply in the state assembly Friday.
The ministry was against the diversion of 124.054 hectares of forest land from the Majathal Wildlife Sanctuary in Solan district to build the 800 MW Kol Dam project on the Satluj in Bilaspur district.
India’s largest power generation company National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC) is developing the project, whose foundation stone was laid June 5, 2000, by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The environment and forest ministry’s high-powered committee last year took a serious view of the submersion of more than 50,000 trees due to the construction of a reservoir and the threat to the sanctuary’s flora and fauna.
Earlier, the NTPC aimed to commission the project by March 2012.